Court hearing quantum meruit claim for fees must make independent determination of fair allocation

Law Reporter, May 2003

Black v. Robinson, No. 5-01-0904 (Ill. App. Ct. Dec. 5, 2002) (unpublished).

An Illinois appellate court upheld a state trial court's division of attorney fees in a quantum meruit action that differed from an earlier award made by a federal court in the initial litigation.

Here, two attorneys, Black and Robinson, represented a plaintiff in a federal employment discrimination case. A jury awarded damages, and the court awarded attorney fees. A federal appeals court ordered a new trial on damages. The parties then worked out a settlement agreement that included a new calculation of attorney fees.

Robinson indicated that she believed she was entitled to the entire attorney fee award, and Black obtained an injunction freezing the award. Black sued Robinson in a quantum meruit action in state court, and the trial court allocated more than half the fee award to plaintiff. Defendant appealed, arguing, among other things, that the state court had improperly substituted its judgment on an issue already decided by the federal court that heard the discrimination case.

Affirming, the state appellate court found that when the parties reached their settlement, they clearly intended for the new allocation of attorney fees to supersede the award made by the federal court. In any event, when evaluating a quantum meruit claim for attorney fees, a court must make an independent judgment about several issues, including the amount of time spent by the attorney, the difficulty of the case, and the ultimate benefit to the client.

In this case, plaintiff presented largely unchallenged evidence that he devoted a substantial amount of time and labor to the case; for example, he obtained testimony from opposing counsel supporting his contention that he performed critical work in the lawsuit. Thus, the trial court's quantum meruit determination was not against the manifest weight of the evidence, the appellate court concluded.

Plaintiff's Counsel

*Eric Rhein, Belleville, Ill.

John Baricevic, Belleville, Ill.

Documents in this case are available through the Court Document Sets section in the back of this issue, courtesy of Mr. Rhein.